BOLL: Random musings on the Point Forward and team construction

So, as I was sitting here mulling the various ways that we could blow up this team, because we really, truly, suck right now, I began thinking about what sort of team construction we should have in the future.

This led me to examining the championship teams of years past, and I noticed something that struck me - a really high % of these championship teams had a point Forward rather than a traditional PG.  First, I thought it might be the Phil Jackson effect:

Jordan's Bulls - 6 championships with Scottie Pippen essentially running the point.  You didn't think John Paxon was running the point, did you?

Kobe's Lakers - 2 chips with Lamar Odom initiating the offense, and 3 with some combination of Rick Fox, Robert Horry, and Brian Shaw running the top of the strong side.  Does that make anyone else physically ill, or is it just me?  Derek Fisher essentially is a wing shooter who also sets goods screens for a guard.

Then I noticed that some other teams did really well with a point forward.

The Celtics of the 80's had Larry Bird sharing duties at running the point.

The showtime Lakers ran a real PG, right?  But Magic was 6'9" and played the other 4 positions as well as PG.  Magic is effectively a point forward, even though he was listed at PG.

Olajuwon's Rockets had Sam Cassell for their PG, but it was Robert Horry initiating the halfcourt sets feeding Hakeem Olajuwon the ball.  Cassell primarily did what a shooting guard would for this team - make plays in isolation when the shot clock was winding down.  Yeah, Sam, we see your balls.

KG's Celtics had Rondo, but they made their championship push in his rookie season, with Paul(ette) Pierce doing a lot of the handling, especially in crunch time.

That just leaves the double-Wallace Pistons (Billups), Duncan's Spurs (Parker), and the Bad Boy Pistons (Isiah Thomas).  Billups and Parker are scorers first, leaving Isiah as the only proto-typical distributing PG of the last 25 years to win a championship (!).  One other thing - all these teams hung their hat on defense, none were known as elite offensive teams.

 Even the teams that  didn't quite make it there, in recent years...LeBron made it all the way to finals with little backup. 

And yes, Orlando was at it's best with Hedo handling the rock; not Jameer Nelson.

BOLL indeed.